


Rewrite the Stars

by Cumbermarvel (UglyJackal)



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Inspired by The Greatest Showman (2017), M/M, Rewrite the Stars is such a good song for any ship ever, Tumblr Prompt, no fluff here, wow I love pain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-12
Updated: 2018-09-12
Packaged: 2019-07-11 10:42:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15970682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UglyJackal/pseuds/Cumbermarvel
Summary: Tony and Stephen were made for each other





	Rewrite the Stars

**Author's Note:**

> Canon divergence: Stephen didn't turn to dust and helped Tony through fixing the snap

Tony Stark was not in the business of keeping his heart to himself. Especially when he knew that a certain wizard returned his affections. But the certain wizard made it rather difficult when he protested that their hands were tied.

Fate was pulling him miles away from the mechanic, it wasn’t on the cards, so he always said.

‘But you’re here in my heart,’ Tony said, hands holding onto Stephen’s shaking ones, ‘so who can stop me if I decide that you’re my destiny?’

‘Oh, I don’t know,’ the sorcerer drawled, ‘maybe your fiance?’

Yes, the small matter of the fact that Tony was getting married, as he had been since the pair of them met. But when Pepper had been turned to dust and it had been Stephen who was there, through thick and thin, through the good days and the bad, who could blame him for the skipped heartbeats whenever he looked at the high cheekbones, the soft cupid-bow lips, and the eyes drawn from the beginning of the universe?

Who could blame him for falling so deeply in love with Doctor Stephen Strange?

“Strange” had turned into “Stephen” at the same pace that “strangers” had turned into “pining lovers”.

And now there was no more dust. There was bone where there had been ash, and muscles where there had been grief. And an engagement ring where there had been scars. Tony Stark was not a grieving widower anymore, he was a man that was trying to love someone that wasn’t who he would meet at the altar.

Tony Stark was a man who was trying to rewrite the stars.

He was trying to say that Stephen was made to be his, that he was the one that the engineer had been meant to find.

‘It’s up to you,’ Tony said, ‘and it’s up to me; no one can say what we get to be.’

And he was right. The doctor could not refute that. But he had his morals. It wasn’t about him. The world could not be theirs, not tonight, not any night.

‘You think it’s easy?’ he snapped, pulling his hands away from Tony’s, ‘you think I don’t want to run to you? Christ, Tony, I’ve never felt like this about anyone before.’

‘Then say yes,’ the mechanic said.

He didn’t understand; there were mountains in their way, and doors that they couldn’t walk through.

‘I know you’re wondering why I don’t just say yes,’ he said, ‘because we were able to be just us within these walls. But if you broke up with Pepper… and then when we went outside, you’d wake up, you’d see that it was hopeless after all.’

‘Stephen…’

The wizard gritted his teeth. Eyes made of a water-filled galaxy looked back at him. ‘No one can rewrite the stars, Tony,’ he said, ‘how… how can you say you’d be mine? Everything keeps us apart - not just Pepper, but the reporters, your friends. I’m not the one that you were meant to find, I’m sorry… maybe in another life.’

‘Please… I love you, Stephen.’

‘It not up to you!’ the sorcerer shouted, voice cracking as the galaxy cracked and leaked down the plains of the moon. ‘And it’s definitely not up to me. Everyone tells us what we can be, don’t you get it? This was a lost cause.’

All they wanted was to fly with each other. And if that meant falling, then they’d do that together too. They just wanted all of each other. In another life, it would be so easy. But this was not another life.

‘It’s impossible,’ Stephen said.

‘It’s not impossible,’ Tony said.

‘Is it not?’

‘Say that it’s possible.’

The mechanic reached out for the sorcerer’s hand again, grabbing it and pulled the taller man towards him.

‘How do we rewrite the stars?’ the mage whispered.

‘Say that you’ll be mine,’ Tony said, ‘say you were made to be mine. Nothing can keep us apart, because you are the one I was meant to find. It’s up to you, and it’s up to me, no one else. No one gets to tell us what we can be.’

And then their lips met. The stars fluttered and the planets moved around them. Cupid-bow lips locked perfectly with lips of iron, like they were meant to be, like they were made for each other.

But no matter how hard they kissed, the stars could not be rewritten.

The shaking lips of the wizard could not prevent the inevitable, and the tears were salty on his tongue. ‘You know I want you,’ he said past the lump in his throat, ‘it’s not a secret I try to hide.’

The hope that was born from those words made the next crumbling rock so much more painful for Tony.

‘But I can’t have you,’ Stephen sighed, ‘we’re bound to break… and my hands are tied.’

And then Tony Stark was left in the room all alone. He was not a grieving widower anymore, but he mourned for the loss of the man that possessed his heart.

**Author's Note:**

> Buy me a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/stephenstrangestan


End file.
